This interview outtake gives you an idea of the kind of control Apple demands (and gets) when dealing with any kind of media. Benjamin Cohen, a correspondent from UK broadcaster Channel 4 in the UK interviews Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller. As soon as the words "iTunes" and "monopoly" come up in the interview, Jobsian acolytes swarm around, attempting to control every word that's said. "Are you acting in a sort of monopoly way?," asks Cohen. Schiller claims he answered the question, and yes, we are seeing this clip out of context. Still, you can see what amounts to a dream situation by any company, able to perfectly control what's known by other companies as "uncontrolled" media. "Stay focused," intones the Apple babysitter. A good reminder to all journalists to ask the hard questions, anyhow. [YouTube] (Thanks, Rory and Martin!)

Editor's Note: When Apple screws up, we like to call them on it, like with the SDK and missing iPhone features. But I think it's pretty clear that the same question above could have been asked with more poise if the Journalist wanted it answered. To me, it seems like the preceding questions were lopped off, and as he pressed it over and over, the reaction you see above happened. The way it's phrased is to incite shock and the kind of panic you see above. All companies protect themselves from hard questions. Journalists are supposed to ask them. And even if apple gets softballed all the time, sometimes even by Giz at times when we're not doing our job 100%, it seems like maybe the journalist here was doing this for shock gathering, not fact gathering. That's the other side of the argument. I would have asked, "Does the iPhone work with Windows Mobile? Napster? No? So only one application? And no other music stores? Alright then!" Question answered.